World Cup 2026. Despite the fact that it will be remembered for inconsistencies, controversies, touted conspiracies, and alleged corruption, there can be no argument against its financial success and the fact that there were no major reported incidents from the 16 stadiums, 104 games, and 308 goals scored across Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

“La Roja”, Spain, are deserving champions, not just from their game play on July 19 in the final against “La Albiceleste”, Argentina, but throughout the tournament and, by extension, their recent international form. And the unsung hero in all of their recent success has been their coach, Luis de la Fuente, but more on him later.

The individual tournament awards were also announced last Sunday, adding to the long list of controversies and inconsistencies. Without doubt France’s Kylian Mbappé, with his 10-goal haul, was the undisputed winner of the Golden Boot, and became the first-ever player to cop the La Liga Golden Boot, UEFA Champions League Golden Boot, and FIFA World Cup Golden Boot awards in the same season. The other two awards, the Golden Ball and Golden Glove, however, were questionable and somewhat of a headscratcher.

Spanish midfielder Rodri won the Golden Ball as the best player of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Argentina’s Lionel Messi claimed the Silver Ball, and Mbappé received the Bronze Ball. There are some who argue that Messi, the oldest outfield player (39 years 25 days) to start a World Cup final and the only player to start in three such finals, should have the trophy, but as influential as he is to the South American team, that may only have happened if Argentina had won. For the winners, Spain, it is extremely hard to argue that left-back Marc Cucurella didn’t have an outstanding tournament and was more deserving of the award. Opinion, not fact, but it can be heavily argued.

On the subject of defence, Spain’s custodian, Unai Simón won the Adidas Golden Glove award, declaring him the tournament’s best goalkeeper. He achieved an astonishing seven clean sheets and conceded just one goal in eight matches to help lead Spain to their second World Cup title. However, a second look at Sunday’s final revealed that Argentina was held to zero shots on goal over 120 minutes of play by a sturdy, disciplined and organised defense — a microcosm of the tournament and proof that the seven clean sheets should be attributed to their impenetrable efforts, and not Simón’s performance. Arguably, there were a few shot-stoppers more deserving, and on Wednesday, by popular vote, FIFA’s World Cup 11 was named and the included goalkeeper was Cape Verde’s Josimar “Vozinha” Dias, not the awarded Simón. The people have seen and have spoken.

The champions, Spain, entered the World Cup final match with a 37-game win streak 28-9-0 (W-D-L), and the writing was truly on the wall, but not many paid attention. Some may strike it down as coincidence but the parallels with this tournament and their first hold on the World Cup in 2010 are jaw-dropping. Okay, Shakira doing the World Cup anthem for both 2010 and 2026 can be chalked off as non-football and inconsequential, but the other clues should not have been ignored. Spain won the UEFA European Championship (Euro) in 2008, two years before their first hold on the World Cup trophy, then also won the Euro two years ago. And Barcelona, who won both La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup in 2010 and 2026, had eight players in the 2010 Spanish team and the same number of players in the 2026 team. Add the fact that Spain was drawn in Group H in South Africa in 2010 and also in Group H in 2026, and were held goalless in their opening encounter in both tournaments, plus the fact that the opening matchup in both 2010 and 2026 was between Mexico and South Africa, on June 11, and the whole thing appears scripted.

Eerily, Spain’s third group game in 2010 and 2026 were against South American opponents, coached by Marcelo Bielsa, Chile in 2010 and Uruguay in 2026, and in both tournaments Spain defeated Portugal 1-0 in the Round of 16. Of comical coincidence is the fact that Real Madrid went trophyless for two years leading up to both 2010 and 2026,José Mourinho was signed as their manager in 2010, and the announcement of his second stint was made at the beginning of the 2026 World Cup. Call it coincidence or a natural alignment but the design was in place, and only divine intervention could have interfered.

Now to the coach, De la Fuente, who 13 years ago was unemployed and came across a job advertisement from the Spanish Football Federation looking for a coach for its youth teams. He hadn’t taken charge of a single top flight match throughout his career — having only had uninspired results in spells at lower league clubs in Spain — and similar to other recent World Cup winners such as Lionel Scaloni (Argentina) and Joachim Löw (Germany), he was relatively unheralded. He applied for the role, got the job, and has been on a winning trajectory ever since.

Though without major experience, De la Fuente, whose surname literally translates to “of the fountain”, “from the spring”, or “of the source”, embedded himself in a culture that took root when Johan Cruyff took over Barcelona in 1988, and it gradually seeped into Spain’s national consciousness. This served him well, winning the 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, then repeating the success at the UEFA European Under-21s in 2019 before taking charge of the Spanish Olympic team, winning silver at the delayed 2020 Games.

De la Fuente now looked the part, and his accrued knowledge of the players and the system created a winning formula. He took charge of the senior men’s team as head coach in December 2022 and led Spain to the 2023 UEFA Nations League title, UEFA Euro 2024 success, and now the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

A quintessential international coach with a young team at his disposal seemingly capable of overcoming any obstacle they face in the next few years.

By the end of his coaching career De la Fuente will be known as one of Spain’s greatest-ever managers, proving that experience on the sideline of football’s biggest clubs is not the only viable route to success. Viva España! Viva De la Fuente!

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